00s kids shocked to discover London landmark The Gherkin isn’t a hospital

Some millennials have been shocked to discover that an iconic London building is in fact not a hospital as they were led to believe.

Opened in 2004, The Gherkin is a commercial skyscraper in London’s primary financial district, the City of London.

Standing at 591 feet tall, the building picked up its moniker years before it was built after plans revealed its highly unorthodox layout and appearance.

However, some viewers of a noughties CBeebies TV show have only just come to the realisation about the building’s actual use.

In the show MeToo!, a live action educational programme for preschool children, the building is known as Harlequin Hospital.

Running from 2006 until 2008, the series was set in the fictional city of Riverseafingal in Scotland, but was filmed in North Berwick, Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester.

Following six parents and their children, the show alternated between what the kids did during the day when going to child minder Granny Murray’s house and their parents’ work lives.

One of those parents was Dr. Juno (played by Rosemary Amoani), an A&E consultant who worked at the hospital.

Despite it being over 15 years since the show wrapped up, now grown-up viewers were gobsmacked finding out the real use of the iconic building.

Sharing a real-life video of The Gherkin overlapped with a song from the show on social media, TikTok user Heather said being told the building was a hospital ‘was one of the biggest lies ever told to us as a child’.

@www.heatherm.net

90% of the tall glass buildings in London are banks and offices. Thanks CBBC x #thegherkin#metoo#cbbc

♬ original sound – Childhood Nostalgia 🌈

‘90% of the tall glass buildings in London are banks and offices. Thanks CBBC x,’ she added.

Her post was a revelation for many, with user Liam commenting: ‘This is how I find out it’s not a hospital.’

‘I THOUGHT IT WAS A HOSPITAL FOR SO LONG LMAO,’ Martha shared.

‘I’ve found this out multiple times, but my brain just refuses to update that information. it will always be a hospital to me, and I’ll always be surprised when someone says it isn’t,’ Jeevan added.

Many others still weren’t that convinced, saying they were certain the building was a hospital, with one joking: ‘It’ll never be anything else to me!’

For those who didn’t catch any of the 150 episodes at the time it aired, MeToo!’s two seasons (which don’t appear to available to watch on any streaming service today) would alternate between what the parents were doing at work and what the children were doing with Granny Murray.

One of the aims behind the series was to reassure children of working parents who go to childminders that their parents were always thinking of them, while children could also get an understanding of an adult’s working day.

Each episode’s plot hinged on a problem that develops at work and the main character’s ‘race against time’ to sort it out, with Granny Murray also providing a kernel of wisdom that helped the problem be solved.